Name’s Artificial Lure, checking in with your Lake Champlain fishing report. We’re locked in a mid‑winter pattern now, and both Vermont Fish & Wildlife and the New York DEC are still hammering home the message: safe ice first. Local shop chatter from the Islands down through Addison says ice is decent in protected bays, but still sketchy on the big main‑lake stretches and anywhere near current or pressure ridges. Keep that spud bar working and don’t trust old holes or sled tracks. Weather-wise, the Burlington forecast has us in classic January chill: teens to low 20s for daytime highs, single digits at night, light north–northwest breeze, and high pressure overhead. Mostly clear skies, so you’ll get good visibility and that crisp, squeaky ice. Sunrise is right around 7:30 a.m. with sunset near 4:30 p.m., which puts your best bite at first gray light and the last hour before dark. No true tides on Champlain, just slow level swings and wind‑driven seiche, and today’s calm pattern means very little under‑ice current except near river mouths. According to local bait shops in Keeler Bay and around the Sand Bar, yellow perch and bluegill have been steady in 10–25 feet, with honest jumbos to 13–14 inches mixed in and buckets of eaters. Folks are also picking at walleye along the first main‑lake breaks, plus scattered pike roaming the weed flats in the bays. A few anglers working deeper basins where there’s safe ice are icing the odd lake trout, but it’s not fast and furious yet. Best producers right now: for perch and panfish, small tungsten jigs in chartreuse, glow, or natural browns tipped with spikes, mousies, or a single maggot. A little Slender Spoon or Buck‑Shot spoon with a minnow head, just quivered in place, is outfishing big rips. For walleye, tip‑ups or deadsticks with medium shiners or small suckers set a foot off bottom, plus a glow spoon with a minnow head during low light. Pike guys are doing well on classic tip‑ups rigged with big shiners or dead bait, set just under the ice over remaining weeds. If you’re chasing numbers, Keeler Bay and the Sand Bar area on the Vermont side are fishing like the neighborhood grocery store: steady perch and gills, plus bonus pike when you set a couple flags closer to the weed line. On the New York shore, Port Henry and Bulwagga Bay are turning out piles of perch, with a chance at lakers and the occasional walleye on the drops when the ice firms up enough to roam a bit. Travel light, punch a lot of holes, and don’t be shy about sliding 20–30 yards at a time to stay on marks. Subtle presentations are winning over aggressive jigging, and those dawn and dusk windows are where most of the better fish are coming from. Thanks for tuning in, and don’t forget to subscribe. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai. Great deals on fishing gear https://amzn.to/44gt1Pn This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI.
